Premium
Psychiatric labeling and social perception
Author(s) -
OMMUNDSEN REIDAR,
EKELAND TORJOHAN
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1978.tb00320.x
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , impression formation , causality (physics) , affect (linguistics) , perception , context (archaeology) , social perception , social psychology , impression management , mentally ill , psychiatry , mental illness , mental health , communication , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , biology
The present study explores the effects of three types of psychiatric labeling on attribution of causality and impression formation. It was found that observers tended to be more person‐oriented in their attributions when explaining an accident of a person being labeled formerly mentally ill and formerly psychiatrically hospitalized, as compared to a non‐psychiatric control label. However, no such tendency towards person‐orientation in causal attribution was found for a problems‐of‐living label. These effects were found to be independent of variation in amount of neutral context information about the person being labeled. The effect of labeling on impression formation was found to be inconclusive, and reasons for this are discussed. Context information was found to affect impression formation in that the person was evaluated more positively. No sex differences in attribution of causality and impression formation was found.